Part 15 - May 21 - Breakfast at the University

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As they walked the sleepy children back to the food court, Nancy moved up to walk beside Carl. “Carl, I am so sorry I snapped at you. I just can’t bear to put the children through any more.”

Carl nodded. “I understand. I’m not used to working with younger children; the kids I work with are a few years older, and I do have a bit of a ‘get over it’ approach.” He smiled at her. “I mean well.”

Nancy gave him a weak smile back. They walked a few more steps, and then she asked very quietly, “Carl, Helen said she and Frank have a son.”

Carl stopped suddenly, turned, and looked at Nancy in surprise, then glanced over at the elderly couple escorting the children back to the food court. “Oh!” He nodded. “Yeah, I guess all these children might bring back that memory. I’m sure you’ve noticed that Helen has moments when she isn’t quite in touch with reality.” Carl continued walking and watched the older couple as he lowered his voice for Nancy’s ears only. “They did have a son, but he died years ago. When Helen gets tired or stressed, she sort of has flashbacks.”

“Oh, I’m so glad I didn’t ask further questions,” Nancy said.

“Helen never fully recovered. At first, her grief was so deep we were afraid she wouldn’t come out of it. Later, she seemed to snap out of it and even went back to work for a few years. But we started to notice that she would slip back to older memories, especially happy memories of Bobby coming home. Later, her doctor diagnosed her with early-onset Alzheimer’s. They had to remove her implants to combat the disease. That may be what saved her from this.” He waved his hand at the sky, attempting to indicate the situation they were all in. “Frank never got implants. What about you?” he asked. “I would think that as a teacher you would have extensive implants.”

“I did. I was in the process of getting an upgraded modem this summer. I’ve been disconnected for a week. It’s made it very difficult to work with the children and lessons without my direct connections to the net—not to mention the withdrawal.” Nancy looked Carl in the eye. “You get these intense headaches from web withdrawal, but the pain after the crash was even worse, even with the meds for withdrawal. I didn’t make the connection between this headache and the crash until I found Tim. I was planning to go to the office to get something for my headache when all this just hit the fan, and I had to deal with taking care of the children.”

Nancy shook her head slowly, watching Helen. “She is so wonderful with the children. How is all of this going to affect her?”

“She’ll probably flourish. She loves children; she taught classes here on campus and would work with the local elementary schools. Don’t worry, Frank will keep an eye on her. She has a great deal of love to give these children, and they will help fill some of that void she has suffered since she lost her son.”

Carl and Nancy entered the food court and found that Helen, Frank, and half a dozen of the older children had set up the counters for breakfast earlier. They had arranged the fresh milk beside the boxes of cereals, bowls, and spoons. The older children helped the younger ones get their plastic bowls and pour the cereal and milk. Everyone sat around the tables in the food court area, quietly eating their breakfast.

“We’ll have to decide how to keep the food stocked up. Helen said that you and Frank got this milk from some cows here on campus?” Nancy asked.

Carl nodded as he swallowed the mouthful of cereal. “We have four dairy cows, and with care they should each produce six to eight gallons every day. We also have chickens, but they’re egg layers, not meat birds. Frank and I can work on raising a flock to provide meat. We’ll look around and see if we can collect some of the stock from surrounding farms. We’ll have to go out and at least turn the animals out or make sure they are not suffering.” Carl took another bite of his meal. After chewing, he finished, “We’ll have to start to think long term. Not just tomorrow but next winter and next year. The people who are affected will start to die in the next few days,” he said very quietly.

Nancy closed her eyes and nodded. “I know, but I just chose to not deal with that fact. It’s been easier to just worry about caring for the children.” She sighed. “You were right about having to teach the children to survive on their own. I’m just not ready to let go and deal with that. Hell, Carl, I don’t even know where to start.”

Carl reached across the table and took Nancy’s hand. He looked her in the eye. “Listen, we’re all in this together. We have a little time, but the sooner we ease the children into whatever new life we can build for them here, the better off they’ll be.” Carl gave Nancy’s hand a gentle pat, then sat back. With a tight grin, he went on, “I think right now we need to plan for the next few days and nights. So, for now, just decide what you will do with these kids today. Just start with one day at a time.”

Nancy opened her eyes wide. “Oh my, well maybe we should explore the campus.”

“You had better let Frank, Sam, Amy, Geoff, and me go around and check to see who was here when this went down,” he said. “The campus has a great deal to offer—in some cases, maybe too much to offer. There are some places that the children should be kept out of, like the chemistry and pharmaceutical buildings. We’ll make sure you know where those are; in fact, I think I should get the keys and make sure those buildings are locked up. For now, the agricultural area is safe—just keep the kids away from the heifer with the calf. She might feel threatened if too many people get too close to her baby.”

Nancy smiled. “You have a baby cow?”

“Yes.” Carl smiled at Nancy’s wide-eyed wonder. “She’s only a few days old and very cute. I’ll make sure that you and the children get to visit her.” Then he continued, “Geoff and Amy said there were quite a few athletes working with them at the athletic center on their project when this happened. They’re going to try to move them to a makeshift medical set-up today. Frank, Sam, and I will go down later and see what we can do to help. But I think we need to go get supplies first. Sam and I have to go get the horses, so we could stop and check out that big warehouse store on our way. What do they call it?”

“The Shop Smart Superstore.” Nancy rolled her eyes. “What a complete scam!”

“Right,” Carl drawled. “Well, if it’s not too bad, we may be able to take the kids to the store to pick up more supplies later.” At Nancy’s raised eyebrows, Carl held his hands up to fend her off. “We’ll just have to see.”

“Where else can the children play?” Nancy asked.

“The Quad is clear. Ask Geoff and Amy to bring up some sports equipment. If we take off soon enough, we should be back before lunch. Then we could decide what to do next,” Carl finished.

After a calm pause, Nancy asked, “Have you seen Tim this morning?”

Carl nodded. “The boy came to the barn with me last night. I set him up in one of the offices with a cot and told him that he’s welcome to stay as long as he wants. He’s a great kid; I left him in charge of the barn for the morning. He’ll be down shortly. We had a long talk about his parents—he just needs some time to come to terms with all his losses.”

Nancy sighed. “I don’t know what I’d have done yesterday without that young man. I wouldn’t have done anything different, but having him to depend on gave me the confidence to hold myself together.”

Nancy watched the children throw their bowls and spoons away. Some were throwing out uneaten cereal and milk. Some were commenting that the milk tasted funny. They would have to learn that food could not be wasted. Once food from the surrounding stores was gone, they would have to become self-sufficient. That would mean using the farm animals as food and growing what they needed. It also meant teaching the children how to raise their own food and to eat foods that were not processed, like this morning’s raw milk. Everyone would have to pitch in. This was way beyond the secure, controlled classroom lesson—this would mean the difference between living or not. Carl was right, but she just didn’t have any idea where to start.

Two of the surviving teenagers who had helped set up and serve breakfast approached Nancy. “Mrs. Jackson, we want to stay here and set up for lunch,” Jeff and Larry announced. “We can fix egg sandwiches with the fresh eggs, and there are all kinds of cold cuts that will just go bad if we don’t eat them, and we can make a fresh pot of soup. Mrs. Helen, Rachel, and Kaelyn said they’d help. Can we?” the boys asked in earnest.

Nancy smiled. “I think that’s a wonderful idea, but let’s go back to the dorm and make plans for the day, and we’ll work your ideas into those plans; all right?”

Jeff stepped forward. “Mrs. Jackson, we know what is going on, and we can help. Our families owned restaurants, and we used to help out in the summer. We know how to do a lot of things, and we can do this. We want to do this, Mrs. Jackson,” the boy stated with solemn sincerity.

Nancy smiled and felt tears of pride come to her eyes. “We’ll make it work, boys, I promise.” She hoped she was telling them the truth.